Strawberry season hits peak… last week

Some years strawberry growers are lucky and the production peaks just in time for Christmas, most of the time it doesn’t and that’s just the way nature does things – unpredictably!

This season it looks like product across the country peaked last week and since then the size of strawberries has dropped rapidly.

If you’ve been buying strawberries this season you will have noticed the huge strawberries that were available a few weeks ago – often so big they were difficult to pack. Well it looks like the plants have exhausted themselves and now it’s just downhill.

A lot of the production is decided during the winter and this winter was long, wet and cold and this probably has affected the flowers and therefore the volume. It’s been a warm mild spring and the plants went into overdrive without any consideration to consumers Christmas requirements!

What this means for the coming weeks is difficult to predict, but one things for sure the volume of strawberries and the size of the berries themselves is falling quickly and there’s no going back.

Enjoy them while they are still around because it’s likely that by the end of January it will be all over!Look out for our Strawbuddy strawberries in New World’s and Pak’n'Saves across the North Island, you’ll also be able to buy our berries from a few independents under the Best Berries label.

Strawberry Sorbet

 

Well hasn’t the weather been fantastic? More than a few people have commented that this was like the summers they had when they were kids – near impossible to know whether this is just a perception or the summers really were better. Maybe things are warming up and we’ll start getting some nice summers again! 

Anyway, to take your minds off global warming, here’s a cooling summer desert recipe…

Like a lot of cooking ‘from scratch’, people are so used to just buying things ready made that they find the prospect of actually making food from ingredients a bit scary. Actually Sorbet is very easy to make, it just requires overnight freezing in between the processes.

• Ingredients
  
• 1 cup water
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• 12 large strawberries
  
• 1 egg white
  

Method

1. Place water and sugar in a pan and simmer gently until sugar has dissolved.
2. Allow sugar syrup to cool.
3. wash & hull (remove stalks) strawberries.
4. blend strawberries in a food processor or blender
5. add cooled sugar syrup to strawberries and give all ingredients another quick blend.
6. freeze mixture overnight.
7. next day – whisk egg white till fluffy & stiff
8. remove strawberry mixture from freezer, add to food processor or blender, blend to a ’slush’.
9. add  egg white and re-blend or a minute. The egg white gives the sorbet a lighter airy texture, more like ice cream.

Enjoy a refreshing alternative to ice cream! Serve with fruit or a nice chocolate tart (future recipe) or on it’s own for a guilt free treat!

Strawberry Daiquiri

The weathers been great for strawberries, and it’s also great for eating them… or drinking them!

This afternoon has been another stunning day in Auckland, light breeze, cloudless sky, perfect for an evening drink on the deck, perfect for a Daiquiri.

Daiquiri’s actually evolved from the drink that sailors we ‘served’ on ships in the 1700′s, a mixture of rum and lime juice – lime to fight scurvy. During the 1940′s with drinks like whisky and vodka not being available during the war, rum became acceptable, and eventually fashionable and Daiquiri’s became the cocktail of choice. A more detailed history can be found here.

Here’s our version of the Daiquiri. Pop down to your local New World (strawberries on special this week) grab a punnet of strawberries, a bottle of Rose’s Lime juice, and a bottle of Bacardi.

Best Berries Daiquiri

• 6 large hulled strawberries
• two hand-fulls of ice cubes
• 9 parts Bacardi White Rum
• 3 parts Rose’s Lime Cordial

1. Put all ingredients into a blender and mix until smooth
2. Serve in a cocktail glass
3. Drink in the sun…. yum!

I have given measures here, because it depends how many people you are making this for. You can add sugar but Rose’s Lime cordial is quite sweet and this recipe is very refreshing without being too sweet. Enjoy!

Great weather makes great strawberries

The warm dry weather that Auckland has been getting over the last few weeks is ideal for producing fantastic strawberries.

Not too much humidity, a little bit of rain, and a fair bit of sun.

This means we are currently picking some of the nicest berries we’ve seen for years, large & juicy!

Even better is that this is great weather for eating strawberries too

Welcome!

We thought we would try something a bit different.

Every time you go to a produce site you get the same formula, a bit of a sales pitch, product information where to buy the stuff etc etc…

You’ll get that here too, but because this is a blog, we’ll be posting information about what we’re doing, and (hopefully) interesting things about berries that you may not know about.

You’re most welcome to comment, this is a blog after all!

Every week there’ll be something new, so check back.

Enjoy